TV Host Stacey Simon: Shen Yun Imparts Important Values

April 24, 2016

TV host Stacey Simon at the Shen Yun performance at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts on April 23, 2016. (NTD Television)

TORONTO—For TV host and author Stacey Simon, seeing China’s millennia-old culture portrayed through the different time periods by Shen Yun Performing Arts was like seeing “time and space, heaven and the earth, coming together.”

“I just thought it was really beautifully created on the stage for everyone to be able to enjoy and sit back and just watch it unfold right in front of you,” said the host of Gusto TV’s “Stacey Simon Rendezvous” and author of “Where the Streets Have a Cool Name.”

Ms. Simon took in Shen Yun’s performance at the Sony Centre on the evening of April 23, the fourth in a five-show run.

Based in New York, Shen Yun presents classical Chinese dance and music in exhilarating performances held around the world each year. The company aims to revive China’s divinely inspired culture with its artistic and culturally rich performances. One of the elements of intrigue often cited by audiences is the deep inner meanings in Shen Yun’s performances, such as principles from ancient China like propriety, righteousness, and belief in the divine.

Pointing to this aspect of the performance, Ms. Simon stressed the importance of having values in life.

“I think it’s important to have values and to remind us of certain values. Sometimes we may tend to overlook it or forget even, and it’s really nice to just sit there [in the theatre] and let it unfold in front of you,” she said, noting that this aspect was also evident in the lyrics sung by Shen Yun’s vocalists, who use the bel canto style to sing Chinese lyrics.

“It makes you think, ‘yeah, you know, that’s really true, what they are saying and singing about,’ so I really enjoyed that as well. It resonates—it kind of wakes you up, like ‘yes, life is too short,” Ms. Simon said.

“It’s all about at the end of the day if you do good then, the heavens open up, the earth opens up.”

Ms. Simon was impressed by the artistic elements of the performance as well.

“Beautiful, beautiful performance. The dances, the costumes were so colourful, just absolutely amazing,” she said.

She described the dancers as “absolutely dreamy” and “inspiring to watch,” and said she can tell they really enjoy what they do.

“So beautiful, everyone is so beautiful and so elegant and poised, and every movement is precise. And you can tell how much they enjoy what they are doing as well, and they’re bringing out their customs and traditions.”

The hundreds of hand-made costumes and state-of-the art animated backdrops also stood out for her.

“There is always the beautiful landscape and it was so colourful with the movement of their clothing and also the colours that everyone was wearing. There is always a story being told as well, which I really enjoyed,” she said.

Ms. Simon concluded that Shen Yun was a “pleasure to watch” and an experience from which she “learned a lot.”

“You could see a lot of the history and the culture and the traditions coming to life in such a beautiful form.”

Reporting by NTD Television and Omid Ghoreishi

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s International Company is currently touring Eastern Canada. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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